Lucky

This is Kman, my 13 year old host brother, and Lucky, our dog. 

Let me start my explaining some things about Pohnpei. First, they have a serious problem with stray dogs. They are literally everywhere. Nobody takes care of them, and anything resembling an animal shelter is unheard of. As a result, almost every dog you see is diseased, injured, starving, etc. Basically an ASPCA commercial waiting to happen. It sounds sad and depressing, but it’s remarkable how quickly you become desensitized to it all. Luckily there is no rabies on Pohnpei, but most of the dogs I encounter on a daily basis are disgusting and terrifying, and I want absolutely nothing to do with them. 

The dog problem is so severe that we were taught how to get dogs to go away almost instantly after we landed. Techniques include shooing them off (in Pohnpeian they say, “Shy!”, or sometimes something that sounds like “Shhht”, like you started to let out a curse word then tried to stop yourself). We’ve also been encouraged to stomp our feet at the dog, lunge at it, pretend like you’re going to throw something, actually throw something, or the ever-popular kicking the dog away. This may sound harsh, but it’s a daily necessity. Fortunately for me, local men frequently assist me in keeping the stray dogs away, which keeps me from having to Shy them too often. 

So to recap, Pohnpeians generally hate dogs. Some people even eat them. I’m not kidding.

However, some families choose to adopt dogs as pets. And by adopt I mean just decide not to kick a particular dog, nothing formal involved. My family has adopted Lucky. You can usually spot an adopted dog pretty easily because they are generally fully-bellied, clean (relatively speaking), and not terrifyingly diseased (I can’t stress to you enough how gross these dogs are. There are some things you can just never un-see.).Even amongst families with dogs as pets, dogs are never allowed in the house. So Lucky just happily lounges outside and waits for her table scraps (which, now that I’m around, are quite a bit).  

Maybe it’s because I pet her the most out of my family, or because I don’t ever hit her with the broom (cough Nohno cough), but Lucky has decided that we are best friends. Any time I leave the house, Lucky walks with me. (Everyone calls her my bodyguard, but they obviously don’t know her very well. Lucky is a giant wimp, and everywhere we go I am constantly on the offense, protecting her from bigger dogs that attempt to mess with her.) We walk to the grocery store, we walk to do my laundry, we walk to Telecom where I can use the payphone, and of course, we walk to my Training every morning. Wherever I go, Lucky just waits patiently outside the door until I come back out, then we walk home (Well, with the exception of this morning, when I tried to make a phone call and Lucky caused such a huge scene outside crying, barking, and scratching at the door that I had to leave before the phone booth was available.). 

Up until this week, Lucky has been just walking me to my Training and then returning home, but a few days ago she got gutsy I guess and decided to come all the way into the school (we’re using a local Elementary School for a Training facility) where she discovered there are lots of people who will pet her. So, now it has become a routine. We walk to school and wait outside the classroom for all the other Trainees to show. Then each one greets her by name and pets her before entering the room. This was all cute and good until today. Usually, Lucky stands around outside the classroom door (which remains open for desperate ventilation needs) for a while after we start, and then eventually gives up and goes home. But today she gained some more courage and decided to just come on in. So the Presenter is speaking, and in trots my little dog, right over to me. I bashfully lead her back outside and tell her to stay (like she speaks English…), but she immediately follows me back into the room. Over and over until I eventually allow her to sit on the floor at my feet. But then it became a game of nibbling on my feet, my skirt, leg, chair anything she could get her little mouth on, so I ultimately had to drag her out of the room and shut the door. I suppose she eventually lost interest, because I didn’t see her again until I got home today.  I fear this will become a habit.

So it would seem that I have made a new friend here in Pohnpei. Kman and Nohno love to hear my stories of what Lucky and I do each day, and they were rolling around laughing when I told them she came into my classroom today. When Nohno regained her composure she said, “Lucky always follow you because Lucky really love you.”

 I definitely do not mind.